Satellite Identification, Tracking, and Health for Position Navigation and Timing (SITH-PNT)

GPS denial is a growing threat to military and civilian operations around the world, both through active jamming and through anticipated failure of an aging GPS satellite constellation. While active jamming can be circumvented with specialized circuitry, obtaining position, navigation, and timing (PNT) during satellite failure remains an unsolved and growing problem. In collaboration with AFRL personnel at the Starfire Optical Range, Kirtland AFB, Nokomis developed the Satellite Identification, Tracking, and Health (SITH) network as a way of locating Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites on the basis of their radio transmissions. Nokomis proposes to use the SITH framework, with a potential accuracy of 0.1 m, to provide PNT signals for GPS-denied environments. SITH-PNT will rely on a dense and growing constellation of active, RF-transmitting, commercial LEO satellites already in orbit. This constellation will ensure that a highly robust, multiply redundant mechanism is always in place to provide PNT signals, even in the event of GPS satellite malfunction or failure. By adapting the SITH network, the proposed SITH-PNT framework aims to provide accurate PNT signals for L2C carriers with a target resolution of 100 ns in Phase I.